This article is a continuation of the Clemson Countdown series that overviews the dining options students can find on the east side of Clemson’s campus. Due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, on-campus dining is altered compared to previous semesters. These changes include adjusted hours with dining halls being closed between meal periods, students having to make appointments to dine and students having the ability to make to-go appointments. The east half of the campus features Schilletter Dining Hall, Peppino’s Pizzeria, the Hendrix Student Center, the Community Hub, Freshens and Starbucks.
Starting with the horseshoe, we have Schilletter Dining Hall. A few notable details about this dining hall is that it is middle-sized, and it is buffet style, which makes it similar to the Fresh Food Company Dining Hall. Compared to the west campus dining halls, Schilletter has fewer options, but some may find the quality to be better. For example, this dining hall has delicious pizza and self-serve scoopable ice cream with flavors that frequently change. Similar to the Fresh Food Dining Company, Schilletter features different stations that offer a variety of options for each meal. Of all three dining halls, this one has the shortest lines and a normal amount of seating space.Schilletter Dining Hall and the Fresh Food Company Dining Hall feature to-go options every day, and have dine-in options from Monday to Friday. Breakfast starts from 7 a.m. to 10 a.mm, while lunch is from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., and dinner is from 4:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Right outside of Schilletter Dining Hall is the new Peppino’s Pizzeria, which is now located where Wendy’s was It is hard to predict the wait times for this restaurant as it has not been tried by students yet; however, as pizza and other fast foods typically take longer to prepare, students should expect some wait time for this option. The standard hours for Peppino’s are 11 a.m. to 1 a.m., Monday through Sunday.
Next up is the East Side Food Court, which is located in the Hendrix Student Center. Located on the first floor, this food court is home to Panda Express and Subway. These restaurants are pretty typical of their respective chain restaurants. Their wait times vary depending on when you go and if they need to prepare food in the back. For example, waiting for the orange chicken at Panda Express to cook can take a few minutes longer than expected. Overall, the lines are not very long, but extra time should be allotted just in case. Both of these restaurants offer the GrubHub app to eliminate wait times. The standard hours for Panda Express are 10:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. from Monday through Thursday, 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Friday and 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturdays. The standard hours at Subway are 10:30 a.m. until 3 p.m. from Monday through Friday.
Located on the second floor of the Hendrix Center is Einstein Bros. Bagels. It is a standard Einstein’s, being a part of a chain and provides a good option for coffee on the east side of campus. Wait times vary, but they are not usually bad. There are a variety of options, and it is a nice change in pace from the rest of the breakfast-focused restaurants on campus. The standard hours for Einstein Bros. Bagels are from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. from Monday through Friday.
Douthit Hills is home to the final dining hall at Clemson, which is the Community Hub. Located on the top floor of the building, this is the only dining hall that is not buffet style but is station-based with one swipe per meal period. Some of the stations switch weekly, and the schedule can be found on the Community Hub website. The salad and pizza stations are permanent stations; however, the pizza station rotates options daily. This dining hall will not have to-go services this coming semester but will have dine-in appointments available. The Community Hub has the least space available, which means fewer appointments. The food is also made-to-order, which means that it takes a little more time to get your meals than at the other two dining halls on campus. This dining hall does not serve breakfast and is only open for dinner on Sunday during the weekend. The standard hours at the Community Hub are at lunch from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. on Monday through Friday, and dinner is served from 4:30 p.m. until 8:30 p.m. on Monday through Friday and Sunday. There is also a Bento Sushi within this dining hall, which is similar to the one located on the west side of campus with typical hours from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. from Monday through Friday and 4:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. from Monday through Friday as well as Sunday.
On the first floor of the Douthit building, there is the Douthit Starbucks. This Starbucks is the most similar to the McAlister Starbucks on the west side of the campus in regards to their wait times. The wait times vary depending on the time of the day, but they do accept GrubHub orders here. The hours are 7 a.m. until 9 p.m. from Monday through Thursday, and the hours vary on the weekends.
Right next to the Douthit Starbucks is Freshens Fresh Food Studio, which has a variety of options such as smoothies, rice bowls and flatbreads. They also offer a breakfast meal-swipe exchange program that allows students to exchange a meal swipe for a variety of items. It is located inside the Douthit P.O.D. convenience store and offers GrubHub orders. The standard hours at Freshens are Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. until 2 p.m., and it is open on Sundays from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. The wait can take a few minutes due to custom orders, so it is best to come when you’re not in a rush.
That encompasses all of the dining spots on Clemson’s campus. Happy dining Tigers!
